Harakah 21st January 2000

Even as home minister and prime ministerial wannabe Abdullah Badawi was cornered and forced to utter the phrase "law of the jungle" popularised by his jailed predecessor Anwar Ibrahim, worldwide condemnations continue to pour in over the crackdown on free speech and democracy launched on January 12.

"Our country has laws ... not the law of the jungle," replied Abdullah when asked to comment on the United States' concern over the recent spate of arrests, hours after prime minister Mahathir Mohamad hurriedly left for a vacation abroad.

Days before his arrests in September 1998, Anwar warned that Malaysia's concept of rule of law was increasingly heading to that of "law of the jungle".

The United States government on January 15 said it was "deeply concerned" by the crackdown, which it described as a "cynical attempt" to intimidate opponents.

"We share widely expressed concerns that these arrests are a transparent and cynical attempt to intimidate government opponents and stifle legitimate political discourse," said US State Department spokesman James Foley

Foley said the US will be closely monitoring the sedition cases. "The cases of these individuals will be closely watched, both within Malaysia and throughout the world, particularly with a view to whether they receive impartial treatment with due process of the law in fair and open proceedings.

"We call on the government of Malaysia to protect internationally recognized rights of free speech and political expression."

In Paris, the French-based media organisation, World Association of Newspapers, which represents more than 17,000 publications in 93 countries, has joined other international groups in expressing "serious concern at the harassment" of Malaysian media.

In a letter to Mahathir, its president Bengt Braun called for charges against Harakah editor Zulkifli Sulong to be dropped.

"We respectfully call on you to ensure that all newspapers are permitted to circulate freely in Malaysia and that the Printing Press and Publications Act is not used as a mechanism for suppressing critical opinion," he urged.

Copies of the letter was also sent to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura.

In London, international human rights group Amnesty International condemned the government for using "selective prosecution" to silence outspoken critics.

"Amnesty International has long believed that the continued existence of an array of restrictive laws in Malaysia, many unable to be challenged in court, poses a grave threat to fundamental rights of freedom," it said.

"The organisation fears that the safeguards designed to prevent the authorities from using such laws to initiate selective prosecution for political purposes have been fundamentally weakened."

Amnesty noted that government and opposition figures had made public statements that could be interpreted as potentially seditious but only opposition members had been charged.

"Charging political leaders and journalists with sedition threatens to strike at the heart of free speech in a democratic society," it said. "When such prosecution appears to fall solely on opposition figures, public confidence in the rule of law risks being seriously undermined."

Amnesty warned that the courts may not adequately defend the freedom of expression under the Malaysian constitution and international law. Meanwhile, the Malaysian Bar Council, which has been silent in the wake of the crackdown, said it would not hold any special meeting to discuss the "sedition" charges brought against Anwar's defence lawyer Karpal Singh.

Its chairman R Chelvarajah said the council does not plan any form of protests to register their concerns but would opt to "use the courts".

"We will use the rule of law to demonstrate our independence," he said.

Fifty three lawyers had filed a petition to the council, asking for a special meeting. Lawyer P. Uthayakumar who initiated the petition for the special assembly, said Karpal's prosecutors had showed total disregard for the Legal Profession Act. The act allows lawyers to carry out their duties without fear or favour.

The Bar Council, until recently an outspoken critic of the government's continued harrassment of lawyers, had recently made a "reconciliatory" gesture with the government.